This last weekend I headed up the highway to Ulladulla to take part in this year's Storyfest.... best described as "a celebration of storytelling in all it's forms"......my love of reading equates to my love of stitching so I was in my element surrounded by like-minded readers, authors and a great pop-up book shop (courtesy of the Harbour Bookshop in Ulladulla).
I booked into 4 "talks" over the weekend.... the first being by Rosalie Ham......
- author of "The Dressmaker" and it's sequel "the Dressmaker's Secret" ......she also talked about how the film came about - making mention that her and members of her family were "extras" in the film!..... Later in the afternoon I attended a session called "Writers on Writing" - a panel of 3 writers discussed such topics as where their ideas came from, what inspired them to write their current book - some of the views of each were quite varied! Saturday finished off listening to Craig Silvey, also wrote the book "Jasper Jones", but he was there to talk of his recent novel "Honeybee" - how he was inspired to write the story and create the 2 main characters in the book.
Sunday morning I made the spontaneous decision to attend a talk called "Sisters in Crime" - a session with 3 female writers of crime discussing their recent books... 
.... I found this interesting as I do read crime / thriller novels but most have been written by a male....but here were books written from a female perspective and in all 3 the main characters and storyline involved women....
Did I mentioned there was a pop-up bookshop!! A few books made their way home..... 
Over the last few weeks some stitching has been done - but not a lot and definitely not enough to "talk" about..... have been busy reading though with Jasper Jones being a must read before I headed to Storyfest......
A few weeks ago (22nd May) on a beautiful sunny Autumn day my sister Vivien was finally able to have a memorial for her husband Graham.... with covid restrictions eased family and friends came together at the Exeter Village Hall for the afternoon with some staying on into the evening sitting around firepits at her home enjoying a glass (or 2) of wine, pizza and toasted marshmallows ...... 
Hayley (in the middle) was able to come down from Queensland - it was lovely for the family to be able to catch up with her as well!
Am off to another writer's talk at our local library in a few days time so am busy trying to finish that author's book - feel I'd rather be at home reading than at work - but more on that next time and hopefully with some stitching to show!
Happy Stitching
Asta
